Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Epistle, 1 Timothy 2:1-15         

1 Timothy 2:1-15

When Paul pens words to Timothy, I really want to hone in on what we find, each line, each paragraph. Paul’s relationship with Timothy is a special one-he addresses the younger leader/pastor calling him his “true son in the faith.” There’s real love there. Both ways. Here, Paul is mentoring with pen and ink and he reminds Timothy to hold fast to his task remembering whatever comes his way that God himself “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (v. 4).

All people. The next question of course is why doesn’t everyone say yes. And the common Christian answer is that our free will can have its way. That may be the common Christian answer but it is not the biblical one. Can of worms now opened. You see the mystery lies not in our choosing but in the Lord’s. Luther staked much of his reformation teaching on the idea that fallen man has no free will in spiritual matters prior to conversion. Man is born dead in sin and dead men cannot choose. Now, we can choose in civil and common matters, i.e. who to marry, whether to marry, where to live, what socks to wear, etc. But the human will is a slave to spiritual death apart from God’s call and enlivening of the human heart. The issue is never why God chooses some and not others. The question is why God chooses any at all.

His desire is for all people. He has given his Son and paid the full price for our redemption. And in his mysterious working he chooses sons and daughters in Christ and leaves the door open with a call to all sinners. I don’t understand it all. I cannot. But I have been given a gift and I dare not hoard it. Everyone of us who love Jesus have been given that gift and the task to give it away. God grant it. Amen!